First
let me congratulate you on the many great things you are doing for America
from the prosecution of the war against terrorism to the withdrawal of
the United States of America from the ABM treaty to the passage of that
excellent tax cut bill that you managed to get through the Congress.

In my view you are one of the finest men to have ever served as president.
Your genuine faith is an inspiration to all of us. I want you to succeed.
Your father was also a very fine man who I admired. His sense of public
service was a remarkable example to all citizens.

But your father had a weakness that proved to be his undoing. I thought
you had learned from his mistake but it appears perhaps you have not.

I have been here a long time now. I came when Lyndon Johnson was president,
Mike Mansfield was Senate Majority Leader and John McCormack was Speaker
of the House. The Democrats had almost two-thirds control of the Congress.
A couple of years later, Richard Nixon was elected president. The Democrats
continued to control both houses of Congress, but there were reasonable
Democrats back then. Nixon could get votes on important issues that were
critical in his time, such as the Alaska pipeline, because there were
Democrats in leadership who were willing to put the interests of the country
ahead of the interests of their own party.

Today you have a vastly different situation. The Democrats in leadership
are not reasonable. Tom Daschle has proved to be an even tougher ideologue
than was George Mitchell.

The politics of hubris will not work. You may think the Democrats in
leadership will end up operating in the best interests of the country.
They will not. They will slit your throat.

Do you have any idea what it will be like for you if the Democrats are
in control of the House for the last two years of your Administration?
They will use their subpoena power to make your life miserable. They will
see to it you accomplish nothing. Then they will turn around and accuse
you of being a do-nothing president.

I agree with you that Ted Kennedy is a very able legislator. But to go
further and suggest that he is a wonderful human being is dangerous. First
there is a lot of evidence that your statement isn't true. What that does
is to release the swing voters in the USA from holding their noses and
supporting their own party. The average voter would just as soon vote
for the Democrats. The only reason they vote for your party is because
they think the leaders of the other party are unpatriotic, are morally
reprehensible, or don't understand the problems of the average citizen.
Once you embrace the leaders of the other party, it is like a large permission
slip for these voters to vote as they really would prefer.

Being the thoroughly decent person you are, you tend to think that others
think as you do. You would not stick a knife in their back at the critical
moment in the political life of the nation. But they will not hesitate
to do so to you.

You think, as your father thought, that by getting friendly with these
leaders you can get them to behave as you and your associates behave.
It will not happen. As ideologues, they value winning over everything
else.

They can put their arm around you one day and will shoot you in the back
the next. All those loving things you said about Ted Kennedy didn't stop
him from calling for delay of your tax cut bill the very next day.

Mr. President, if you continue to practice the politics of personality,
you will see your party suffer massive losses this November, despite your
personal popularity. That would be tragic, not because your party can
always be counted on to do the right thing, but because the other party
will absolutely block your program, much of which I am convinced is in
the best interests of the average US citizen. Forget energy independence.
Forget missile defense. Forget further tax cuts. Forget more reasonable
regulations. Forget protection for the unborn. Everything you stand for
will be blocked.

I beg of you, in the interest of progress on a reasonable agenda, re-think
what you are doing. If you must praise leaders who are your ideological
enemies, do it in private.

I know you would rather not hear this. If you follow my advice, which
is not partisan but made in the best interest of the average voter, you
will thank me after November. If you don't, I am very afraid I will be
able to say "I told you so." I don't want to have to say that.

God bless you and know our best wishes and prayers are always with you.